I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.

When I was young, all I wanted and expected from life was to sit quietly in some corner doing my work without the public paying attention to me.

On how he sees himself: A person with no roots anywhere…a stranger everywhere.

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

All of one’s contemporaries and aging friends are living in a delicate balance, and one feels that one’s own consciousness is no longer as brightly lit as it once was. But then, twilight with its more subdued colors has its charms as well.

Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.

Mankind invented the atomic bomb, but no mouse would ever construct a mousetrap.

God always takes the simplest way.

God always takes the simplest way.

As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

Never memorize something that you can look up.

When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. When life is bitter, say thank you and grow.

How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it.

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

To see with one’s own eyes, to feel and judge without succumbing to the suggestive power of the fashion of the day, to be able to express what one has seen and felt in a trim sentence or even in a cunningly wrought word – is that not glorious? Is it not a proper subject for congratulation?

On the mysterious: It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

I always get by best with my naivety, which is 20 percent deliberate.

The search for truth is more precious than its possession.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. 

Happy girls are the prettiest.

Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.